Two of America’s most vociferous anti-Muslim activists have been banned from Britain as extremists after the home secretary determined their presence “would not be conducive to the public good.”

Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, co-founders of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), had planned to attend a rally being organized by the anti-Muslim extremist group English Defence League (EDL) on Saturday in Woolwich, where British soldier Lee Rigby was brutally murdered last month by two men who said they were avenging the killings of Muslims by the British military.

On her website, Geller posted a June 25 letter from the Home Office of the United Kingdom informing her that she is no longer welcome in the UK. “The Home Secretary has reached this decision because you have brought yourself within the scope of the list of unacceptable behaviours by making statements that may foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK,” the letter says.

The letter notes that Geller founded SIOA, “an organization described as an anti-Muslim hate group.” (The SPLC, publisher of this blog, has listed SIOA as a hate group since 2010.) The letter also cites two of Geller’s statements:

“Al Qaeda is a manifestation of devout Islam … it is Islam.”

“If the Jew dies, the Muslims will die as well; their survival depends on their constant jihad, because without it they will lose the meaning and purpose of their existence.”

According to the letter, foreigners may be banned for expressing views that foment or justify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs; seek to provoke others to terrorist acts; foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts; or foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.

In his manifesto, the Norwegian anti-Muslim terrorist Anders Breivik, who slaughtered 77 of his countrymen in July 2011, drew inspiration from Spencer’s work, citing him dozens of times. “About Islam I recommend essentially everything written by Robert Spencer,” Breivik wrote.

EDL leader Tommy Robinson (aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) described the decision by Britain’s home secretary as “embarrassing” and insisted the duo were coming to Britain to lay flowers at the site of the soldier’s murder.

Spencer, author of the blog, Jihad Watch, said the “British government is behaving like a de facto Islamic state. The nation that gave the world the Magna Carta is dead.”

Being banned in Britain should not be a shock to the pair, especially after Robinson illegally entered the U.S. in January to speak at an SIOA event. Robinson was detained by authorities for trying to enter the country with a fake passport in the name of Andrew McMaster. Somehow, the Brit eluded authorities and made his way to Manhattan where the event was being held. After returning to England the next day with a passport in yet another name, Paul Harris, he was arrested and eventually spent 10 months in prison for trying to illegally enter the U.S. This was the second time Robinson was denied entry to the U.S. He was turned back in June 2011 because of his EDL ties.

On another international front, several Australian news sources have reported that the West Australian police commissioner has promised to monitor all incoming and outgoing E-mail for anti-Muslim content. Western Australian law imposes criminal, but not civil, sanctions against vilification. According to one reporter, “The country’s criminal code was amended in 1989 to criminalize the possession, publication and display of written or pictorial material that is threatening or abusive with the intention of inciting racial hatred or of harassing a racial group.”

That is a fantastic bit of heartening news… if only more businesses would see others as equals, would allow others equal rights for their religions and beliefs…. and Thank You as well.

Sam Molloy

MRJ, thank you. An optimistic note from Shelbyville, Tennessee: 80% of the roughly 1250 union members at a Tyson chicken plant successfully voted in favor of moving that one plant’s celebration of the Labor Day holiday a few days to coincide with the end of Ramadan, to allow the roughly 250 mostly Muslim Somali refugees who work there to more easily have a day of prayer.

Aron

MRJ, that was beautiful. Thank you.

MRJ

@ Sam

We all say the same things: Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.
Soooo… if they did unto you first, should you then do it unto them?

One needs look at the establishment of Islam as a major, organizing (note: organizing. Like any religion.) religion, the timeframe it was established comparative to the Judeo-Christian beliefs, the various Crusades as an actual response to the establishment of that religion and intentionally destabilizing incursions for gathering wealth, land and “souls” for the glory… European expansionism… Middle Eastern expansionism… you know, you can pretty much put it all down to greed, and narcissism.

If you are peaceful, and just happy with what you have, someone will hate you for it.

Recent fanaticism is, in my opinion, really, only recent due to the nightly news, and the ease of global communication and travel in the last 75 years… well… steam ships… well… the Hansiatic League… well… Viking (verb, as intended)… well… various Khans… well… Carthage… well… the Pelopennesus….
We are just more aware now, and able to influence on a much broader scale.

Fanatics have always been around.
Just ask the people at Jonestown.
Or, further back: “Carthage must die!”

Yeah, it’s also interesting to walk around the monuments in DC and see the Middle Eastern influence… or know that every canal, paved or cobbled roads, public water works or fountains, public parks, atriums, pointed arches in a Cathedral window, crenellations in European castle walls… even the alphabet and numeric system we use: are all Arabic or Middle Eastern in conception.

Byzantium on the Potomac.
If you get there (or have been there: next time) wander over to Catholic University, and revel at the dome.

Something else that some Americans don’t really understand is that the term used so frequently now, International Terrorism (as another trip wire for US vs Them kind of recurring isolationist ideals after the dissolution of the CCCP as an “Anti-Christ” organized aggressor), has been an unfortunate way of life for the billions over the years unfortunate enough to be caught in the middle of warring gods/ideologies across the breadth of the Eurasian and African landmasses for tens of thousands of years.
Pre 9/11, many Americans had no real concept of the term other than that it happened in Belfast, Munich, Sarajevo, Haifa, or Tel Aviv and were just pictures on the news between ads for Crest, and Chevrolet… but if one had grown up around Indians and Pakistanis for instance, and seen first hand when their families are informed that bombs had gone off in their home town and they didn’t know if their extended families were safe (pre cell phone), or understand the phylacteries and menorahs, and the pride of the very act of prayer when there has been an systematic effort by others to wipe your very family, religion, and peoples off of the face of the earth for more than just twenty one centuries…

Aggression is a human condition, and there will always be a victim or scapegoat of some kind for others to prey on.
Laws of Civilization to gain equality for all are a major sticking point when some see narcissistic immortality as the end all be all of their life as opposed to the treatment of others in this existence as equals.

Sam Molloy

MRJ, Persia was always well cultured, and the architecture today is phenomenal ( it would be a shame to level it ). My limited understanding of Islam is that the writings of the Prophet were peaceful and insightful. The hard core parts were added by the next several leaders, and Sharia was developed some 700 years after the original writings. The current fanaticism seems to be a relatively recent development, roughly coinciding with the rise of the political use of the existing fundamentalist Christians in this country. We should all work towards expanding freedom for everyone, which means severely limiting the power of all religious fanatics to control society.

Reynardine

I thank both Aron and Ruslan for their explication of Percy Pigs. Owing to their efforts, I now consider myself enlightened-nay, sophisticated!-though not especially enticed.

MRJ

@ concernedcitizen

“People in our communities need to feel safe and welcomed as long as they are good citizens and they are not out hurting people or teaching others to go out and hurt citizens then they should be supported.
But any idiots who promote the harming of innocent people based on religion, color or sexual persuasion really don’t have a place in any civil society.”

Incorporated thread, but, I believe, applicable….

“This is why hate is so horrible in any form, truly there are some very nasty monstrous white supremacists and bigots out there in the world and they give the White Race a bad name and face, but intelligent people know that there are some very intelligent White people who do not subscribe to their stupidity and are friends and neighbors who do not intentionally try to harm others based on ethnicity, religion or sexual persuasion.

So it is simply not viable to hate all white people.

There are some very nasty bigots where we live.”

Hear! Hear!

Something they can’t seem to understand: not everyone who sees the news about “jihad”, and the Taliban falls for their malarkey lumping an entire religion, group, or people into the actions of those few.
This applies for all.

Were these brainwashing techniques actually feasible for everyone… and they’d have their wish.

A personal example:
When the hostages were taken at the Iranian Embassy, a friend’s father was among the hostages.
Did that make me into an “Eye-ran” hating bigot?
No.
I watched as all of my friends who were Iranian start calling themselves Persian if questioned about their features, and distancing themselves from their mosques and even their language in public.
Listen, and Farsi is a beautiful language, as are the peoples who speak it.

That, and other church/family/religion hogwash was what made me ignore the Patriarchal garbage being spewed in my home.

Here’s an interesting quote regarding Sharia from an oft quoted book on Islam called ‘Understanding Islam: An Introduction To The Moslem World.’ by Thomas Lippman.
(Mentor Books. 1982. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 81-85142)

“It slanders Islam to think of it as a vengeful, primitive religion characterized by polygamy, the execution of adulterers and apostates, and the cutting off of hands. To walk the streets of Alexandria, Mogadishu, or Lahore is not to enter into some feverish world of polygamous, scimitar-wielding vigilantes on guard against infidels and fornicators. Moslems have a well developed sense of right and wrong, but by and large they go about their daily business like any other people, recognizing the dominance of God, but more concerned with putting food on the table than with punishing fornicators.”

He goes on to give examples and synopsis that debunk most preconceived or fomented misconceptions about the “creeping Sharia” and other blather.

“The spirit of Islamic law emphasizes justice for transgressors, equity for victims, and mercy for the unfortunate. Only the unreconstructed literalists argue that the administration of justice today requires to adhering to specific rules and punishments that were applicable in the seventh century.”

FYI: Tom is Jewish.
This book should be required reading.

But, then again, mules and 2x4s….

irishrose

What took them so long?

Kiwiwriter

I will trust the British to keep their own house in order

Ms. Geller and Mr. Spencer are hardly dispensers of truth.

Gregory

The irony is that Geller and Spencer would use immigration control to stop those at the border that Geller and Spencer consider to be undesirable. Ah, sweet sweet Schadenfreude…

Despite some yodels to the contrary, this is not a Freeze Peach issue. Geller and Spencer are still free to spew their bile, they just can’t do it in the UK, a country in which neither are citizens nor enjoy the right of residence. This practice is also quite common in most countries and was a favored tool of the US back when commies were the boogeymen.

I noticed that our resident Bircher has added his two Kenyan Farthings by repeating scare stories from 2008. OK, Sam, where is that resolution now?

Since I am posting this from London, it gives me extra pleasure to know that I won’t encounter these two douche nozzles at Heathrow. As for Georgia Citizen, please remain in the shadow of Stone Mountain and consider it a win-win situation. No one will mourn your absence here in Europe.

majii

I always marvel at the number of Americans who don’t realize and/or accept that each nation has a right to sovereignty and can enact whatever laws its chooses to enact. American government and principles end at our shorelines/borderlines.

concernedcitizen

I agree that anyone who is promoting hate and promotes that which does not support the overall public good should be banned.

We want freedom of speech we do not want people who go around teaching and preaching the harming or hatred of others.

I think Britain is doing the right thing. We allow to much hate to survive in this country and it is destroying our communities. And I couldn’t have said it better it is not conducive to overall public good.

People in our communities need to feel safe and welcomed as long as they are good citizens and they are not out hurting people or teaching others to go out and hurt citizens then they should be supported.

But any idiots who promote the harming of innocent people based on religion, color or sexual persuasion really don’t have a place in any civil society. And those who push their sick conversion therapy or what they believe to be some twisted understanding of religion or Biblical interpretation and act upon those beliefs to destroy the dreams of others have no place in our communities.

Sam Molloy

Erika, you’re absolutely right about our privacy in the electronic age. With the existence of small portable nuclear devices, and the amount of hate in the world, I don’t care what the G knows about me.

Ruslan Amirkhanov

Percy Pigs are ironically sold only at Marks and SPENCERS.

@Bill

Both Spencer and Geller do not simply criticize Islamic extremists. They attack all Muslims. Spencer is notorious for using a technique which was(and unfortunately still is) used by anti-Semites worldwide. Any Muslim who refutes his claims is accused of practicing “taqiyya”(Spencer clearly doesn’t know what this means), that is lying to defend the faith. In reality, the Quran forbids lying about Islam. Taqiyya was for people trapped in a country which was persecuting and killing Muslims. In that case, it was considered alright to lie about being a Muslim, not about what the Muslim faith entails.

Erika

Bill, the rule has always been if you don’t want people to look in at your naked body that you close your curtains. If i am parading my naked body before an open window it is nobody’s fauit but mine if someone happens to see it and enjoy it.

The same principle applies to communications – except that despite what commercial encryption providers might try to claim there is no curtain on the internet. Only a fool believes that anything they do over the internet or using a smartphone is private. It should be common knowledge that the big corporations who provide internet, search engine, and phone service are watching you – and are providing your information to the government, advertisers, who knows who else. And that leaves aside hackers, identity theives, and who knows who else might be watching your every move. And of course, when you use your employer’s computer your employer has the legal right to watch your every move (whether they tell you they are watching or not). And if you ever are a party/wtiness to a law suit you had better believe that you are going to be forced to turn over your computer and smartphone for discovery purposes. And of course, the fact that the government is watching should have been known since at least 2006 and probably long before that. and its not like there has ever been that high of a burden on teh government to get a warrant..

E-mail is never, ever a secure means of communication – neither are text messages or cell phone calls. Social media is never ever private no matter what prviacy settings you might select. You.are an incredibly naive fool if you think otherwise.

Aron

Rey, they’re delicious candies, which incidentally are made with pork gelatin.

And ‘Bill Carter’ please provide evidence that pederasty is taking place per the ‘example’ of Aisha.

Just give me ONE example.

Reynardine

Percy Pigs?

Bill Carter

Having the state warn you that it is intruding on on privacy is like a pervert waving to you as he watches you undress through your windows. When Muslims say something that hurts the feelings of Christians or Jews is that vilification? Are they being racist when they same or similar things about Chrisitians and Jews and Jews say about Muslims?

When was the last time you heard of Christians or Jews threatening and or carrying because they were they vilified by Non-Christians or Non-Jews?

Are they victims of Judeophobia-Christisanphobia?

Is it racist to say that the Bible is corrupted byJews and Christians?

Is it racist to say that Jesus was not cucified, that he was a Muslim Prophet sent to warn the Jews to return to Islam?

Is it racist vilification to point out that more than one Muslim believes since Muhammad “consumated” his marriage to a very mature nine year old girl it is therefore ok for other Muslims to follow his example?

Are these actions being taken by Austrailia being done out of respect or fear?

By the way, exactly what did these racist blasphemers say?

I think it is racist to say that because Muslims will resort to violence if Geller or Spencer say something that will hurt a Muslim’s feelings.

The claim that Geller, Spencer et al should be prevented from speaking because some psycho was influenced by their writing is in my opinion a pretty claim.

Aron

Hey Sammy, what does that have anything to do with anything

Even if it had any chance of passage (which it doesn’t), how effective are UN resolutions? As a Libertarian and possible Bircher, you should know the answer to that.

IDBC

These people are guilty of committing “thought crimes”. They say things that hurt the feelings of Muslims and may provoke a teeny tiny amount of NOT REAL, SO-CALLED MUSLIMS who have hijacked TRUE Islam, which EVERYBODY knows is the most tolerant of all religions. No one should be allowed to say anything hat may in anyway possibly hurt the feelings of any person.

Georgia Citizen

This is show us that the U.K. is nothing more than a bastion of left wing liberalisms,, just like the rest of Western Europe.European don’t understant the concept of freedom like we do. America will alway be #1 when it comes to our constitutional freedoms, althought I sometimes complaint about the abuses our freedom.
The Europeans can have their hunk of metal (Eiffel Tower),their ugly old big ben clock and whatever else they have over there. I rather see the largest grasshopper display in North Dakota any day of the week.

Erika

Aron, at least the Austrailian police have the common decency to warn people that they are monitoring their emails.

Sam Molloy

Yes, Aron, and there is a UN resolution to curtail ” blasphemy”, proposed by Muslims to curtail antiMuslim rhetoric. This could be misused against all manner of free speech if it were passed.

Reynardine

I’m with Aron on that last bit.

Ruslan Amirkhanov

That means NO Percy Pigs for those two!

Aron

That last bit of news is frightening. As much as I abhor Islamophobia, that is a step in the wrong direction.